"I travel for travel’s sake. The great affair is to move.” – Robert Louis Stevenson

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

i come by it honestly

apparently (according to my mother, who may or may not exaggerate facts) i have always been that kid that runs away, hides, gets into things, climbs on top of refrigerators, or if using a euphemism...likes to explore. things haven't really changed. minus the whole refrigerator thing.

However, i believe i come by my gypsying honestly.

i get my passion for trying new things from my mom. or maybe even my grandma. who, while my papa was stationed different places in the army, went out and explored on her own. which nowadays doesn't seem like a big deal but was quite unusual back then. though my grandma would probably say it comes from the Native American in her family and then proceed to talk about my crazy great great grandfather...

though a crucial part of gypsying...the wheeling and dealing part....i get entirely from my dad.

my dad is..frugal to say the least.

he doesn't like paying more than he has to and always checks the receipt to make sure everything was rung up correctly. as a result. i am the same way. i hate paying for things (note: i don't steal things just try to avoid paying for things like oil changes), i love bartering for a good deal, and when i inevitably break something, try to fix it.

example:

at an all you can eat breakfast in russia, i may have taken a few extra hard boiled eggs..and put them in my bag. people laughed. but guess who wasn't starving or exhausted when there was no time to stop? the crazy girl with the hard boiled eggs.

my older sister is the same way. her approach is different. she pretends to be helpless so people can just fix the problem for her. or turn off the light after she already in bed, or even managing to get water brought to her. shameless. but effective.

so. really. between my mom and my dad and my crazy great great native american grandpa. there was nothing to do but give in.